Understanding Intercultural Communication Second Edition

1. Understanding Intercultural Communication Second Edition Chapter 2 What is Intercultural Communication Flexibility? Stella Ting-Toomey & Leeva C. Chung OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS PowerPoint Slides Designed by Alex Flecky and Noorie Baig

2. TODAY’S MENU I. Defining Intercultural Communication: A Process Model II. Practicing Intercultural Communication Flexibility III. Developing Intercultural Communication Flexibility IV. Deepening Intercultural Process Thinking

3. I. Defining ICC: A Process Model Intercultural communication: • symbolic exchange (digital, analogic) • process (transactional, irreversible) • cultural community • negotiate shared meanings (content, relational, identity meaning) • interactive situation (relational, psychological, physical) • embedded societal system (multilayered context)

4. I. Defining ICC: A Process Model Person B’s cultural frame of reference Person A’s cultural frame of reference

5. II. Practicing Intercultural Communication Flexibility Introduction Section: 1. Flexible and inflexible intercultural communication 2. Ethnocentric and ethnorelative mindset

6. II. Practicing ICC Flexibility Ethnocentric mindset… - Stuck in own cultural worldviews, using our own cultural values as standards to evaluate others’ behaviors. - Viewing our cultural way of living as “natural” and what’s going on in other cultures as “unnatural.” • Evaluating the communication norms of our own cultural group as more “proper.” • Acting in a conscious or unconscious manner in favor of the ingroup standard to the exclusion of outgroup standard.

7. II. Practicing ICC Flexibility Ethnorelative mindset… - Understanding behavior from the other person’s cultural frame of reference. - Suspending ethnocentric, reactive judgments and engaging in a systematic cross-cultural comparative analysis. - Promoting a respectful, inclusive climate via competent communication skills practice.

8. II. Practicing ICC Flexibility A. Three Content Components: Knowledge, Attitude, and Skills B. Three Criteria: Appropriateness, Effectiveness, and Adaptability

9. III. Developing Intercultural Communication Flexibility • Staircase Model: Four Stages of Flexible Intercultural Communication 1. Unconscious incompetence: blissfully ignorant 2. *Conscious incompetence: semi-awareness 3. Conscious competence: “full mindfulness” 4. Unconscious competence: “mindlessly mindful” * Pretty Woman – Which stage are the women in at the store on Rodeo Drive? What lesson did Julia Roberts teach them?

10. III. Developing ICC Flexibility

11. III. Developing ICC Flexibility Movie Analysis: Outsourced film clip Questions to think about: • Which stage of the staircase model is Aunty-ji operating from? How did Todd react to Aunty-ji’s comments? • Did you find Aunty-ji’s questions too intrusive? What culture-sensitive information can you use to justify her questioning? • At what point in the clip did Todd switch from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence? • Apply the three content components (knowledge, attitude, and skills) from your chapter to help Todd and Puro reach the conscious competency stage.

12. III. Developing ICC Flexibility • A Mindful Perspective: Flexible Communicators: • Attune to their own internal assumptions, values, and expectations. • Attend to alternative assumptions, values, and expectations of the cultural strangers. • Learn to understand unfamiliar behaviors from multiple cultural angles. • Are committed to shift communication styles when appropriate to the persons, goals, and cultural context = ICC Flexibility.

13. NACIREMA Application Exercise Instructions: -- Need 3 - 5 volunteers to take a walk outside and be prepared to visit a new culture. -- Inside the classroom: Get ready to play. Will give you the Nacireman cultural values and rules. -- Enjoy! Play out and dramatize your new roles.

14. IV. Deepening Intercultural Process Thinking Realize that ICC often involves these principles: • Mismatched expectations stem from group differences. • Involves degrees of biased intergroup perceptions, overgeneralizations, stereotypes. • Simultaneous decoding and encoding of verbal/nonverbal messages. • Multiple goal transactions: content, relational, identity. • Calls for understanding of diverse communication approaches and styles. • Often involves well-meaning culture bumps or clashes. • Always takes place in context and in embedded systems.

15. IV. Deepening Intercultural Process Thinking Mindfulness Flexibility

16. Parting Thoughts… A traveler without observation is like a bird without wings… ~ Author unknown